#Hokies JUCO transfer Ty Outlaw will miss the season because of an unspecified medical condition

BLACKSBURG — Virginia Tech men’s basketball coach Buzz Williams is willing to wait to see if guard Ahmed Hill’s injured left knee heals before making a decision on redshirting him, but Hill has to show improvement in the next month or so.

Hill, a 6-foot-5 sophomore from Augusta, Ga., who started a team-high 30 games last season, is dealing with what he described as a “50 percent” tear of the patella tendon in his left knee, suffered in early August. He said it was the result of a congenital disorder that caused a bone to grow into the tendon, which weakened and eventually tore.

“I don’t have a decision on (Hill),” Williams said while speaking Monday to reporters during Tech’s men’s basketball media day. “I will make the final decision. I’ll let (him) and his mom be a part of it, but I want to make a decision using the wisdom of doing this for a long period of time. If you let a kid make the decision, they always want to play.

“Right now, I don’t feel comfortable that I would want to play him. It’s just too early to be able to have much more of an answer than that.”

Williams said while Hill hasn’t been released to work out with the team when practice begins Friday, he’s about eight to 10 days ahead of schedule in his rehabilitation. Williams hopes to have a better gauge on Hill’s status around Halloween, but doesn’t want to stretch the decision beyond Thanksgiving.

Tech, which was 11-22 last season and finished last in the Atlantic Coast Conference with a 2-16 league mark, opens its season Nov. 14 at home against Alabama State.

In addition to Hill’s injury situation, Williams said Ty Outlaw, a 6-6 junior-college transfer from Lee College in Baytown, Texas, won’t play this season because of an unspecified medical condition. Outlaw, a native of Roxboro, N.C., spent one season at UNC Greensboro before transferring to Lee for a season.

Hill, who had surgery in August to repair the tendon, was fourth on the team last season with an average of 8.7 points per game to go along with 3.7 rebounds per game. He shot 39.9 percent from the floor and 38.6 percent from 3-point range.

Hill said he originally thought he had tendinitis in July when he started to have pain in his knee, which he felt improved after icing it. In early August, he went up to dunk during a workout and felt a pop. He finished his workout and tried to play a pickup game before his knee started to swell. He couldn’t lift his leg for a week or two.

“(Williams) just doesn’t want me to rush back and end up hurting my other knee,” Hill said.“I worked real hard in the summer to improve a lot of things, like ball-handling, slowing down pace, consistent shooting. I improved a lot. Now, it’s just tough.”

New additions

After sitting out a season per NCAA transfer rules, guard Seth Allen from Maryland and forward Zach LeDay from South Florida are ready to get on the floor for Tech.

While Williams is excited about the addition of his three freshmen — 6-6 guard Chris Clarke, a Boo Williams AAU product from Cape Henry Collegiate in Virginia Beach, plus 6-1 guard Justin Robinson from Manassas and 6-10 forward Kerry Blackshear from Orlando, Fla. — and two JUCO players, Outlaw and 7-foot center Johnny Hamilton from Jacksonville (Texas) College, Allen and LeDay seem to have Williams most charged up.

“I think Seth will be a coach when his career is over,” said Williams, who added he hopes one of the strengths of his team this season will be depth. “I also think Zach will be a coach. They’ll be two different types of coaches, but those two guys were clued in throughout (last season), and I think they matured in a way that we’ll benefit from. There’s a little bit more unique enthusiasm from those two guys, because they know they finally get to put on a uniform, and that’s been healthy for the rest of the guys.”

Both 6-1 Allen and 6-7 LeDay are juniors. Allen averaged 13.4 points and three assists per game in his sophomore season at Maryland, while LeDay contributed 3.5 points and 2.6 rebounds per game as a sophomore at South Florida.

“It was different,” Allen said of his season sitting out. “I really had to sit back and watch the game. It let me look at the game from a different view. I watched a lot of film while I was sitting out, watched how I could play in the offense and what we could do when we have a new team.”

Bringing home gold

As a member of the United States U-19 men’s team that won gold in July in the FIBA World Championships, Tech’s Justin Bibbs basked in the glory of getting to proudly wear his medal — for a short while.

Bibbs, a 6-5 sophomore guard who is Tech’s leading returning scorer after averaging 11.4 points per game last season, said he wore the medal in airports and restaurants on his way back from the tournament in Greece with his teammates.

Not under his clothes, but out in the open for all to see and admire. After all, it isn’t often you get to rock gold of that caliber.

So, where’s the medal now?

“Right now, it’s with my mom,” said Bibbs, a native of Dayton, Ohio. “She’s not going to let it go.”

Clarke’s role

Like most freshmen entering the ACC, the 205-pound Clarke needs to get stronger, but Williams doesn’t think it’ll take him long to get acclimated.

“I think he’s wiry-strong,” Williams said.

“He wants to do right, and he’s passionate about being really, really good. When his motor’s going, he plays as hard as you want a kid to play, and he plays to win. He’s very competitive. We’re going to need him to have a distinct role on our team.”